


ancient prayers

by ednae



Category: Tales of Series, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Ancient History, Drabble, Exploration, Gen, Languages and Linguistics, One Shot, some established sormik if you squint, this is literally just an opportunity for me to show off my reconstruction of ancient avarost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 09:32:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13385007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ednae/pseuds/ednae
Summary: Mikleo and Sorey stumble upon an ancient ruin and discover an interesting inscription.





	ancient prayers

_ Ra sionaga uwa, nashel teepo Urphuaek dimuk maby. _

_ Sun fipeyu filkfoes=niumy. _

_ Nak qoum avax, dumea rama=taesh. _

_ Io lomso timio. _

_ Wea zunea uwa, sha Urphuaek kampax io kiom tir woeb=rampumil. _

_ Wea bor na, labu wakib ru. _

* * *

“What do you think it means?” Mikleo asks, squinting at the mural on the wall.  Looping letters are scrawled in stanzas, faded from millenia of disrepair.  It’s a miracle that they can make out this much.

“It’s Ancient Avarost,” Sorey says, humming as he moves in closer to the mural.  His shoulder bumps against Mikleo’s but he doesn’t move away.  Neither does Mikleo.

“I hate that dialect,” Mikleo grumbles.  “It makes no sense.”

“That’s not true!” Sorey protests.  “You just have to understand the author’s intent in order to read it.  It’s all based on emotions.”

Mikleo smirks.  “Seems like something you’d be good at.”

“I get that was a jab at me, but I’m going to take it as a compliment.  After all, I can read this and you can’t.”  Mikleo’s smile turns down, but Sorey pays no attention to that, having turned back to the wall to examine it further.

“What does it say, then?”

Sorey doesn’t answer at first, squinting at the faded words.  “What’s an Empyrean?”

“Empyrean?” Mikleo repeats.  “That’s the old name for the Five Lords, right?  Is this about seraphim?”

“It looks almost like a prayer,” Sorey says.  “ _ The five Empyreans bless the land and give unto us a world of prosperity _ .”

“This must have been during the time that seraphim and humans coexisted,” Mikleo says softly.  “Or at least, when humans still believed in us.”

“Looks like it.  If it’s Ancient Avarost, these ruins might date back to the Temperance of Avarost.”  Sorey frowns as he looks at the next lines.

“Avarost was the most common dialect of that time, so it doesn’t tell us much,” Mikleo argues.  He finally moves away from Sorey, and the space he once occupied feels cold.  “The architecture of this place seems older, though.  Could it be from the Destiny Dawn?”

“It’s gotta be Avarost,” Sorey says.  “ _ Our faith in the seraphim never wavers.  Our culture flourishes. _  This sounds like it’s describing the Temperance exactly.”

“You may be right.”  Mikleo looks around at the dusty beige pillars holding the high ceilings up.  Even so, the rock has crumbled, and sunlight streams through the holes above, fading the stone on the ground.  Luckily, the mural has remained in the shadows and hasn’t faded as much as the surrounding stone.

“Avarostan architecture is most noticeable by its massive structures that couldn’t have been created with human technology of the time.  Seraphim had to have helped,” Sorey points out, looking up at the tall ceiling.  “How high up do you think it goes?”

“At least fifty feet,” Mikleo says.  “And the figures depicted on the wall do look like they could be seraphim.  I’m surprised these ruins have held up so long.”

“Over two thousand years…” Sorey says under his breath, and then he turns back to the writing.  “ _ We owe our lives to the Empyreans, who salvage our souls from the malevolence that brings destruc-- _ ”

“They knew about the malevolence?” Mikeo asks suddenly, running back toward the mural.

“I thought that was some big taboo,” Sorey says, bringing a hand to his chin.  He shifts his weight to the side as Mikleo leans in, pressing up against Sorey to get a better look.

“I’ve never seen any other historical record depict malevolence.  Are you sure this is right?” Mikleo asks, his voice urgent.

Sorey shrugs, resting his arm on Mikleo’s shoulder.  “The literal translation is ‘the Empyreans salvage our souls from destructive malevolence.’  There really isn’t a lot of guesswork here.”

“Then this would indicate that humans of that era knew about malevolence.”  There’s an odd quality to Mikleo’s voice.  “Do you think they were able to see hellions, too?”

“I guess if they have enough resonance, anything’s possible,” Sorey says.  “It’s weird, though.  I never thought that there was a time when humans knew the truth.”

“Maybe that’s what led to the Era of Disappearance,” Mikleo guesses, his voice grim.  “They knew too much, and it led to their downfall.”

“If that’s the case,” Sorey says with a nervous chuckle, “I’m almost glad it’s a secret now.”

“We don’t have much of a choice in that regard,” Mikleo says.  “I doubt anyone would believe you even if you told them.”

“True enough.”

“What does the last part say?”  Mikleo cocks his head to the side, resting it on Sorey’s arm.

Sorey hesitates a moment, then recites: “ _ We give ourselves to reason _ .”

A heavy silence fills the air, uncertainty laced within each of their breaths.

“What...do you think this means?” Mikleo asks.  His voice seems too loud in the empty room.

“It has a totally different emotion behind it, compared to the other lines,” Sorey nearly whispers.  “It’s empty.”

“Is ‘empty’ even an emotion?” Mikleo quips, but it lacks any heat behind it.

“Usually, emptiness is used to refer to apathy or disconnect from the events around the speaker, but this...is totally different.”

Mikleo seems to subconsciously step closer to Sorey.  “Like they’re willingly making themselves empty?”

Sorey nods.  “I wonder what it means.”

“It’s a prayer, so it has to do with the Five Lords.  Maybe they want to make themselves a vessel...or something.”

They sigh at the same time, both knowing Mikleo missed the mark.  But still, Sorey can’t think of anything different.

“There has to be something we’re missing,” Mikleo says.  He steps away from the wall, letting Sorey stumble forward.

“Hey!”

Mikleo waves him off.  “Do you think there’s more to these ruins?  Hidden rooms, trap doors maybe?”

Sorey frowns, and Mikleo looks around the room again.

There’s the archway where they came from, ornate carvings into the entryway depicting long-lost kings and queens.  Around it is a stone trellis which one held greenery, their first indication that it was a shrine to Eumacia.  The trellis is crumbling now, but Mikleo can still see the intricate criss-crossing of stones that create the illusion of knotwork.

The sunlight has faded the other walls into a simple, unassuming beige.  Ghosts of paintings lightly dust the walls, but nothing so legible as the north wall.  If there were clues painted there, they have long since vanished, erasing themselves from history.

The pillars have carvings on them, but they are contextless symbols that they could never hope to give meaning to without more information about the ruins.  If he had to guess, he would say that they are simply signatures of the seraphim who worked on the building and nothing more, given the distinct features that differ from the rest of the architecture.

But there are no other doors or rooms.  The walls are smooth and unmarred, even by the elements that have ravaged the shrine into history.  There is only this room and the steps that lead to its entrance.

“Maybe it doesn’t have context because it doesn’t need context,” Sorey muses.

Mikleo sighs again.  “That makes no sense.”

Sorey laughs, making his way over to where Mikleo is standing.  The sound reverberates throughout the room and dances around Mikleo.  “No, I mean, maybe it was common knowledge in the past, so they didn’t think it was necessary to explain something like this.”

“It was common knowledge to ‘give yourself to reason?’”  Mikleo stares disbelieving at Sorey, who just shrugs.

“Maybe.  It would explain why there’s nothing else in here.”

“The answers could also be on the faded walls,” Mikleo points out.

“Yeah, but we have no way of knowing.”  Sorey hangs his head, and Mikleo reaches out to ruffle his hair gently, comforting him.  “Do you think there are other ruins from the Temperance of Avarost around here?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Mikleo says, energy thrumming in his voice.  Sorey looks at him, a gleam in his eye that shines with the prospect of adventure.

“I’ll bet I can find one first,” he says, and Mikleo laughs at that.

“Yeah, sure, you’re on.”

He holds out a fist, and Sorey instinctively taps his own to it, and then they're off running.

**Author's Note:**

> the ancient tongue translations are my own! i've been working on reconstructing the ancient tongue for a while now, and this is about as accurate as i can possibly get given the canon information in both berseria and zestiria.
> 
> syntax is based on [hymmnos](http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Hymmnos) from the ar tonelico series. transliteration is from the cipher key i created, and then adjusted for readability! it's not nearly as fancy as the official localizations of the ancient tongue, but it's readable and it looks like its own language, so i'm satisfied.
> 
> if you're interested in knowing more about the ancient tongue (or want me to do translations or true names or whatever), you can talk to me on my tumblr [@ednae](http://ednae.tumblr.com)! i'm happy to help out :3


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